FAYETTEVILLE — Heavy rain may have kept people at home Thursday, but there was no lack of ideas offered by a handful of residents for the future of the Yvonne Richardson Community Center.
The meeting was a platform to which community members were invited to discuss needs, concerns or ideas the center can address to better serve its constituency in southeast Fayetteville, said Tenisha Gist, center director.
After the hourlong meeting with only a handful of residents in attendance, Nancy Allen, president of the board for the southeast Fayetteville Community Center, said, “These are all excellent ideas. We hope to have more of these meetings. The sky’s the limit on what we can do.”
The center already hosts a variety of activities for children to adults but wants to become a stronger part of the community it serves and to create more community partnerships. The primary users of the facility are children ages 6 to 12, Gist said.
The mission is to offer free, quality programming for people who can’t easily access activities offered elsewhere in the city, she said. The center operates around a challenge “to shape today’s youth for tomorrow’s challenges,” she added.
Allen said she's concerned many residents know nothing about the center.
At A Glance
Summer Camp And More
Registration is open for Summer Fun 4 Kids, a day camp for up to 50 children, ages 6-12 years old, said Tenisha Gist, director of the Yvonne Richardson Center. The camp offers a variety of activities focusing on health and fitness, nutrition, nature and outdoors and the arts. Other children’s activities offered at various times are a fall field trip series, youth gardening, teen field trips, children only activity nights, wrestling, home school physical education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters mentoring program as well as pickleball for adults and several community events. Contact the center for more information at 444-3461.
Source: Staff Report
Ideas ranged from parenting classes to offering community meals combined with discussion on available services.
Alan Ostner said residents in his neighborhood appreciate the center’s presence on South Rock Street but suggested a broader partnership with schools and the Fayetteville Boys & Girls Club to offer after-school activities similar to the School Kids Club at Washington Elementary School. The club is sponsored by the Boys & Girls Club.
Ostner also suggested there may be a way to dovetail the school’s backpack food program at the Richardson center. The program provides easily prepared food and snacks for low-income students on the weekends.
Classes that help students deal with family issues and form healthy relationships could be beneficial, said Sarah Marsh, who represents Ward 1 on the Fayetteville City Council.
Rep. David Whitaker, D-Fayetteville, said he would like to see expanded programming for young adults, especially for the 18- to 20-year-old age group.
A limit on expanded programming is caused by lack of adequate space. Adequate space is limited by the lack of money, said John L Colbert, board secretary. He said plans were drawn up several years ago but never materialized because there wasn’t enough money.
The board may look into acquiring additional space in a church next door, an idea offered by one resident who said the church building was unused during the week.
Colbert said the center was established in the 1990s because parents were concerned their teenage children spent time hanging out on street corners because they had no place to gather. The center opened in 1996.
The center was named in memory of Yvonne Richardson, the young daughter of former Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson and his wife, Rose. Yvonne Richardson died of leukemia in 1987 at age 15.